OK I'll admit I'm turning into a bit of fan of Norway's finest metal hero Jorn Lande and his solo band Jorn, Maybe its his sounding uncannily like Ronnie James Dio at times, maybe its cos he pens and performs balls out old school hard rockers full of lyrics like 'raise the metal signs and bring heavy rock to the land' or maybe its the cover artwork that turns me on. I suspect its all three, but whatever the reason. This band speaks to me in ways I've not been spoken to for years, they revive my teenage years when all that was really important, was getting the beers in, getting off with girls and listening to a bottom booting metal sound track while you were doing it.
Now this is the seventh studio album Mr Lande has issued under the Jorn monicker (he has done many others with Masterplan, Vagabond, Millennium and a host of other projects), and I gotta admit in my humble opinion this is one of his best. Aided and abetted by a very talented band of metal merchants including guitarist Tore Moren and drummist Willy Bendiksen he has cooked up a cracking metal album of the old school that pay tribute to and is more than equal to the metal of 25 years ago. You get slices of Dio and 80's Sabbath (natch), hints at the Michael Schenker Group, hat tips to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and even a garnish of The Scorpions for good measure.
There is not a weak moment on offer here. Highlights include the Dio-esque title track, the Rainbow influenced Chains Around You, the power drive of the Helloween tinged Time To Be King, and the closer I Came To Rock a cut that has a certain Armored Saint feel to it. There is also an interesting cover of the Christopher Cross cut Ride Like The Wind which comes over like the version Saxon originally had in mind before they had their take on it remixed and murdered for the American Radio market.
Basically this record does just what it says on the cover, it brings heavy rock to the land by the JCB bucket load, and in a world awash with ten thousand minority metal sub genres the fact that Mr Lande and friends are still producing no bullshit quality hard rock of the old school to such a high standard can only be seen as a very good thing indeed.
Buy or Die
For fans of.. Dio, Black Sabbath, Helloween, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, UFO and classic hard rock in general.
